Gangstar

GangStar: West Coast Hustle is hands down one of the more impressive iPhone titles I’ve come across. While some developers seem satisfied adapting more casual forms of play to Apple’s handset, Gameloft has been trying to bring numerous hard-core genres to the system with mostly positive success.

This time around, the publisher has somehow managed to fit a Grand Theft Auto-like world on the iPhone. It’s an amazing feat with some notable adjustments.

The game is streamlined so that most of the genre’s staples make an appearance while some things are left out. For example, you can’t cause too much wanton destruction blowing up cars in gas stations, but you can do enough damage on your lonesome by carjacking drivers and shooting other gang members. You will have voiced radio stations, but don’t expect to customize the look of your main character, Pedro. There will be vehicle-based side missions such as one in the ambulance, but from what I can tell, the vehicle selection is sparse. (I’ve seen no motorcycles, no helicopters, no airplanes.)

As I mentioned before, the format resembles Grand Theft Auto with different missions for the numerous bosses you work for. Set in Los Angeles, the game does a decent job recreating some famous landmarks such as the Santa Monica Pier and the Third Street Promenade.

As for the actual story, it’s different from your average Grand Theft Auto fare. It’s heavily focused on Latino gangs and Latino culture. The world reminds me more of American Me than Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It’s a different take on gang life, but overall, the title is an enjoyable way to burn some free time if you have any.

Value: At $6.99, GangStar West Coast Hustle is pricey, but you have to take into account that this isn’t your average iPhone game. It’s a convincing Grand Theft Auto clone that will keep you busy for hours and amaze a couple of friends in the process.

With all the amazing titles coming out for the iPhone, it’s hard to impress me. We have decent third-person shooters with Terminator: Salvation. We have smart puzzle games with Columns DLX. Developers have even managed to do a nice-looking version of Doom.

But Gameloft showed me a title that could top all of that. At a meeting at its San Francisco office last week, I had a chance to play Gangstar: West Coast Hustle. The company’s development team managed to create an open-world game comparable to Grand Theft Auto in a matter of 12 months.

Set in Los Angeles, the game puts players in the shoes of Pedro, a recently arrived gangster who joins the family business — a Latino crime ring. Over the course of six chapters, he’ll do a variety of missions for relatives that include intimidating professional basketball players, ferrying prostitutes around and searching for a sex tape. It’s about par for the course for fans of GTA andSaints Row.

For those who didn’t know, Gangstar: West Coast Hustle is the third title in the series. The past two were made for other mobile systems. This is the first one on the iPhone, and what the team has done is fairly remarkable. Players can jack cars easily with a button. They can steer them with a slide bar and control the speed with virtual gas and break pedals. There’s even an option to steer the stolen ambulances, police and race cars via the accelerometer.